A very good mystery by a Canadian author (chosen from the CBC List of 100 Authors who make us proud to be a Canadian). This is a plot-driven mystery, so not much description of place. An intrepid private eye solves several murders, with the usual corrupt police force. There is a good surprise at the ending!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16072980-a-tap-on-the-window
Hugo is obnoxious, cynical and bitter with self-loathing, so a thoroughly unpleasant person who has chosen to be a hermit. His choice of suicide to end his life (spoiler alert) is thwarted leading to a not entirely satisfactory ending but the writing is excellent throughout. (You may remember that I recommended another Christensen book 
last month, The Great Man)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/148216.The_Epicure_s_Lament
One of the best features of this book is the setting: New York and more specifically Coney Island in Brooklyn in 1911. The “museum” is really an exhibit of freaks of nature, both living and dead, most faked/manipulated. The Professor character is wonderfully wicked, but love wins out. Part of the story is a mystery, to add to the flavour.
A beautiful story about books, a grumpy bookstore owner, and a publisher’s rep – what’s not too love! And there is an adoptive child as well. The story is unabashedly sentimental and both funny and sad – a real pleasure to read.
Story is set in the unspecified past, a time of harvest by scythes and oxen. Strangers disrupt the village, bringing loss of civility and unsettling violence; a melancholy story describing what becomes the end of the village. (thanks Erin).
Copenhagen Detective Morck is suffering from PTSD, investigates a cold case of abduction. Not much Danish context but a good thriller with interesting personalities.
Story set in Shanghai from approx. 1900-1930, two mother-daughter relationships spanning 3 generations. Detailed description of life as a courtesan through good times and bad times. Chinese men have anglicized first names like Perpetual and Loyalty.
A 3-way story: a man who dies accidentally, his wife, and the woman he was having an affair with. It is not so much a story of infidelity but what secrets need to be hidden.
This is a horrible story about abusive life within a Jehovah’s Witness family, told from the viewpoint of the 11 year old daughter. Combination of desperate guilt and cruelty.
What David Read 